1999 Toyota Sienna Reviews - Page 4 of 5

1999 Toyota Sienna LE 3.3L V6 from North America

Summary:

Faults:

The plastic clip for the hood support rod broke around 20,000 miles and the dealer replace it under warranty.

A seatbelt seatbelt tensioner on one of the rear seats jammed and I had to replace the entire seatbelt ($130 and 4 hours of my labor).

The spare tire hoist broke the first time I used it ($150 and 20 minutes of my labor).

The driver's side sliding door often cannot be opened from the inside and sometimes can't be opened from the outside either. It's been driving us batty for three years because the dealer can't figure out what's wrong. They suggested that replacing the door lock mechanism (est. $200) might help.

The front tires wear exceptionally fast. We replaced all four tires at 20K and 45K miles. I no longer rotate the tires, and I've gotten almost 30K miles out of the third set.

No sludge or transmission problems so far.

General Comments:

I also have a 1992 Dodge Grand Caravan with 150K miles and its performance and reliability compare favorably with my Sienna. I considered buying another Caravan, but the Sienna had the best crash test performance of any minivan back in 1999. The Sienna is a good vehicle; it drives like a car and is very comfortable. It has some blind spots for seeing vehicles to the left and right, just behind its rear end. The smallish rear windshield wiper is nearly useless because it only wipes a peephole in the rear window. Our Sienna has the towing package option, and we use the Sienna to pull our 3500 lb boat and trailer. The receiver hitch is too low (Toyota builds the Camry and Avalon on the same chassis and the Sienna pays the price in low ground clearance), but the Sienna does a great job pulling and stopping the boat. This is my first Toyota and I've found that they are expensive to repair when compared to domestic brands. Even the aftermarket parts are expensive. (One time when I bought Fram air filters for my Caravan ($4) and Sienna ($14), I complained about the significantly higher price for the Sienna's filter. The manager of the parts place said "Hey, all we have to do is beat the Toyota dealer's price!" He was right. The dealer recently charged me $18 for an air filter and $10 each for spark plugs.)

29th Apr 2007, 23:42

The lubricant in the door mechanism was faulty in my 2000 Sienna. It gummed up on the drivers side door and the door did not open and close well. The fix - I pulled the interior panel off and just sprayed a whole lot of WD40 on everything. Now it works like new.

It is really sad that Toyota does not do a recall if more people are having this problem. It is obviously just a bad batch of grease with a very cheap fix.

1999 Toyota Sienna CE from North America

Summary:

Great ride with some love and care

Faults:

Well besides changing tires at the early stages of my ownership of this vehicle, having the problem with doors getting stuck when sweet liquids drip in to the door gaskets making them sticky (our fault), and front disc brakes warping and having them replaced, this has been a great vehicle for us.

General Comments:

We have traveled across the US from California to Texas on several occasions and have yet to find a large problem with it.

I currently own an 1991 DLX 4x4 pick up with 56000 miles on it and it is still very strong, since I'm sold on the reliability of Toyota products I went and purchased myself a 2002 Sequoia (very comfortable SUV) and it is a pleasure driving it.

All I can say is that if you take care of your vehicle, your vehicle will take care of you.

11th Nov 2003, 06:51

Toyota blamed the sticking doors on me when a sweet sticky drink had never even seen the interior of my van. It is part of their "blame it on the owner game". I bet your doors would have stuck even if you hadn't spilled those drinks. I also had bad brakes and failed engine due to sludge even with average 5-6k mile oil changes.